49 gobblers in 49 states
Eric Warlick of Golden Valley, NC is the first known North Carolina hunter to complete the turkey Super Slam, and he completed the Slam last spring. It’s a pursuit that took him about a decade to finish.
“The Super Slam is a crazy adventure that I started about a decade ago,” said Warlick. “It consists of harvesting a wild turkey in every state that has a huntable population, which is 49 states.”
The one state that doesn’t have a confirmed huntable population is Alaska, which Warlick said he’d love to hunt anyway.
“I’d love to try to kill one in Alaska,” he said. “And there might be a few turkeys there, but they don’t sell licenses for it.”
Warlick first learned about the Super Slam long before he decided he wanted to take a shot at completing the feat.
“The first time I ever read about it was in Turkey Call magazine about Rob Keck, who used to be over the NWTF, having done it,” he said.
Keck, from Edgefield, SC is known as the first hunter to ever complete the wild turkey Super Slam, which he did in 1997. More than a decade passed before another hunter achieved it.
But when he first heard of Keck completing the Slam, Warlick didn’t think he’d one day do it himself.
“I thought ‘there’s no way. Who in their right mind would want to do something like that?’” he said. “I was a lot younger then.”
It wasn’t always the goal
But Warlick said over the years, he hunted new places, and before long, he had a number of states under his belt.
“Turkey hunting has always been my thing. I’ve loved it since the first day I ever hunted turkeys,” he said. “As time went on, I got more and more into reading forums. And I would see people traveling the world hunting turkeys. And I thought about how I’d love to kill all the subspecies.
“And the more I followed along on some of these hunters’ adventures, and seeing the places they went, I just decided I wanted to do some of it.”
Warlick loves nothing more than hunting turkeys in his home state, and especially in the mountainous areas of North Carolina. But he also began venturing out into other states.
“I always hunted a couple of states with my dad and his friends. We hunted South Carolina, and I started hunting with one of his friends in Pennsylvania. So I had a little bit of a head start on a couple of states,” he said.
Around 2014, Warlick met up with another hunter, Dave Owens, who was working on the Super Slam. They became fast friends. Even though Warlick didn’t realize it at the time, this played a part in his own completion of the feat.
“It just sort of pulled me in. I didn’t really make the decision to do it,” he said. “I just started tinkering with it. I’d go to a couple of new states a year. And then it got its claws on me. Then it turned into three or four new states a year, then five or six new states a year.”
Warlick completed his slam while also working a full-time job. He said the most states he ever hunted in a single spring was a dozen or so.
“I’ll probably never be able to do that again in my life, but it was fun,” he said.
Among the handful of hunters who have completed the Super Slam, Warlick said some probably raced through it more quickly than he would suggest.
“I managed to stretch it out for 10 years,” he said. “In my opinion, it shouldn’t be a race. And I’ve talked to guys that have done it. And the ones that were in a hurry said looking back, they wish they wouldn’t have been.”
Warlick finished his quest in March of 2024, killing a gobbler in Nevada.
He loved the adventure
The first turkey Warlick ever killed was during the first year it was legal to hunt the species in North Carolina.
“I killed my first turkey the first year they opened a spring season, in my home state, in my home county (Rutherford County). I think that was around 1994 or 1995,” he said.
His next state was South Carolina, and that was the first time he ever called a turkey in and killed it without help from anyone else calling.
“On that hunt, I managed to call one in myself and kill it. And I thought I was some kind of professional,” he said. “And then the more I did it, the more I learned there is none of that, and that it was the farthest from my goal.”
Warlick said many of the hunts were spectacular adventures, and that many states were more aggravating.
“Hawaii really stands out, for many reasons. It was the first time I’d ever flown,” he said. “And it was a cool place. It’s still, as far as stuff I’ve hunted, it was the biggest physical test for me. It was tough terrain.”
A handful were really difficult to tag a turkey, he said.
“It wasn’t always the hunting that was hard. Sometimes, it was getting a tag, and then finding a place to hunt that was the test,” he said.
While some hunters have the luxury to hire guides in all the states they travel, or have access to private land in multiple states, Warlick didn’t have either of those going for him.
“I did it as cheaply as possible. I’d say at least 90 percent of my hunts were on public land. And I drove my truck, and slept in my truck, for the majority of those,” he said.
The few turkeys he killed on private land were another testament to his sheer determination.
“A few of them, I gained access through door-knocking,” he said.
DIY Style
His longest single trip going from state to state to state, was about 14 days long.
“The most time I ever personally spent is two weeks on the road sleeping in the back of my truck. I’ve got a camper shell on it,” he said.
Even with his DIY methods, Warlick said it wasn’t what anyone would call inexpensive. The cost of out-of-state hunting licenses alone would deter many hunters from even trying. Add that to the gas, food, and other every day expenses, and the amount adds up.
When hearing his story, people always want to know how much money Warlick spent during his decades-long quest.
“People always ask how much money I spent,” he said. “And I’m gonna be honest with you, I never wanted to know. I never kept track of it. Didn’t want to know. And my wife probably didn’t want to know.”
During the first half or so of Warlick’s journey, he used a Benelli M1 12-gauge on his hunts. And as new gun technology came out, he switched things up.
“As time went on. The turkey guns changed, and the loads changed. The whole second half of the deal, I used a Franchi 20-gauge,” he said. “It was lightweight, and easier to carry farther. The way I hunt, I was logging a bunch of miles. So I was trying to make all my gear as light as possible. I’m not going to carry an 8-pound gun when I can carry a 5-pound gun instead.”
During hunts in 47 states, he was able to kill a turkey in each one on his first time there, though not always on his first day in those states. The other two states required a second trip to each.
No regrets
“Louisiana and Nevada. I went to Louisiana in 2020, and it rained the whole time. I managed to spend three of the wettest days I’ve ever spent in the turkey woods. It was the first time I ever went anywhere and didn’t kill a turkey,” he said.
At the end of those three days, Warlick headed back to North Carolina to get his son, who was about 6-years-old at the time, in the turkey woods for his first youth hunt.
“At the end of those three days, soaking wet, living in a truck, I wasn’t have much fun, and I decided it just wasn’t meant to be that time,” he said. “And it was more important to me than anything, to be with my son and get him in the woods.”
On his first trip to Nevada, he struggled to find a place to hunt, finally gaining permission after knocking on many doors. He had one turkey talking to him, and he could tell it was close, but for three days, it stayed on property he didn’t have access to hunt, so another trip was in order.
Warlick has already gone back to several states to hunt turkeys again. Those are states that left an impression on him, either for the beauty of the area, the great hunting, or both. And he’s planning on going to a few others that proved especially difficult for him.
“Everyone likes an easy hunt to fall in your lap every once in a while. But what I really like is a challenging hunt,” he said.
One of Warlick’s favorite parts of his journey included eating fresh turkey throughout, and bringing turkey home. He ate turkey nuggets almost every night while camping.
During one trip that required an airline flight, he killed several turkeys in several states, managed to freeze the breasts, then packed them in his carryon for his flight home.
“They looked at me funny going through that X-ray machine, but they didn’t stop me,” he said.
For anyone else wanting to complete the Super Slam, Warlick has just one piece of advice.
“The most important thing is to have a good time with it,” he said. “Don’t get caught up in the middle of it rushing. Don’t get caught up running to your truck before a turkey is even done flopping, just so you can get to the next state as quickly as possible. Enjoy it. There’s no trophy at the end of it for you. You won’t win a bunch of money. Nobody gets a prize for it. Take it in. Soak up as much as you can. Enjoy each one. That’s the way I did it, and I have no regrets.”
Hear Warlick talk about his adventure by clicking here to listen to our podcast.
Be the first to comment